Online or electronic security is a major issue in the industry. It seems a month does not go by without news of some major business having a security breach. Such breaches include government agencies, retail outlets, social media companies, and even major banks.
Whenever an enterprise believes that a secure fix to remedy a breach has been deployed, hackers quickly figure out a new way to breach their systems. In some cases, the breaches are not even within the systems of the enterprise; rather, the breaches can occur over network transmission lines that enter or exit the enterprise systems; the hackers use sniffing techniques to acquire copies of data packets being transmitted over the network lines and find a way to break any encryption being used (assuming encryption was being used).
Advances are being made to combat security issues. For example, in the retail industry where a retailer has to ensure the integrity of financial transactions at Point-Of-Sale (POS) terminals, Secure Input/Output (I/O) Modules (SIOMs) have been deployed within POS terminals. These SIOMs are physical modules integrated into the POS terminals. The SIOM is a gatekeeper that establishes and manages encrypted communications between endpoint devices that support secure communications. The SIOM acts as a traffic cop, enforcing security policies and routing messages across device controllers.
However, many scanners associated with POS terminals lack access to a SIOM and may be network based. Scanners may sometimes be used to capture a variety of confidential information, such as credit card images, driver license images, check images, and the like. Moreover, even if scanners are not currently used to capture confidential information there is a desire for scanners to capture such information particularly to prove compliance with regulations (such as underage drinking by capturing the driver license) or to assist in processing checks for payment.
Therefore, there is a need for enabling scanners with SIOM capabilities.